Serving Others

Before silent meditation, I would like to discuss a question that I was asked recently. The question was, how much of our lives should we dedicate to ourselves and how much of it should be in the service of other people?

This question made me think about the evolution of Eastern spirituality in the West. I think there was a great prosperity after World War II, and during the 60s, quite a large number of young people from Europe and America travelled to the East in search of spirituality and the meaning of life. They were introduced to disciplines such as mindfulness, meditation, yoga, Sufism, and various spiritual traditions. Eventually, these young people returned home and introduced Eastern spirituality in their own countries. The Nimatullahi Order was no exception to this trend. The Order was introduced to the West by my father in the early 70s, after a number of young Americans and Europeans were initiated into the Order in Iran and then had to return home. It is important to remind ourselves that these techniques were originally developed in the East to achieve a degree of enlightenment and awakening for the sole purpose of aiding and serving others. Buddha, for example, after reaching the state of awakening, made it his main purpose in life to save people from suffering in the world.

After the introduction of these disciplines in the West, some people noticed that certain Eastern spiritual techniques, such as mindfulness, meditation, and yoga, can be used to help alleviate the pressures of modern life and symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and various kinds of neurosis. These techniques are now commonly practiced by people to deal with mental problems and to achieve a positive and balanced outlook in life. Like many other imported systems of thought and spiritual disciplines that come to the West, these spiritual traditions soon came to be viewed as profit-making institutions by providing practices to help individuals achieve the most material gain in their lives. So, it is not uncommon for corporations these days to ask their employees to attend courses in mindfulness and meditation to increase productivity and to find better ways for their employees to cope with the stress at the workplace.

It is also common for people to spend a lot of money listening to lectures by spiritual gurus and practitioners in order to ‘understand’ spiritual concepts such as ‘awakening,’ ‘having no self,’ or experiencing ‘spiritual ecstasy.’ So, if you look at what’s happening now in the Western countries in relation to the Eastern traditions, it seems that the question that I raised in the beginning of this article—“how much of one’s life should be devoted to helping oneself and how much to serve and help others?”—would be answered in this day and age in the West in favour of the individual. Pretty much everyone is using spiritual traditions for their own sake, to achieve some kind of bliss and happiness in life, or even just to survive the pressures associated with modern life.

I grew up in the 60s in Iran in an environment where people spent a major part of their lives dedicated to the service of other people. Most of these people had jobs, but despite the usual pressures of modern life and financial hardship, their first priority in life was to serve and help others. Not all Sufis acted like this, of course, but there were a few who truly lived for other people. Thinking back on that leads me to the question: what drove these people to disregard their own needs and focus on other people?

What I remember most about their service to others is that the service they provided was not a chore to them or not done out of obligation. It was as if they were driven to serve. And what I think drove them to help others was the force of love they found in themselves. Sufism for them was first and foremost about helping others. They embarked on the Sufi path from the beginning to cultivate love in themselves, initially by the love of their spiritual guide and their fellow spiritual travellers, and gradually expanding this love to all humanity and everything that exists. This love guided them to see the positive aspects and beauty in everything instead of seeing negative things, which in turn led them to assist and help others. Once you see in yourself the capacity to love everything, you have no choice but to serve and help others.

When service stems from love, there is no feeling of burden or obligation. Nor is it necessary to wait until you find total inner peace or happiness in order to serve others. In fact, studies have shown that helping others, volunteering, and being of service can actually counteract depression and anxiety.

So, the question of how much of your life you should dedicate to yourself and how much of it to other people in reality depends on how much love you have or cultivate in yourself. The more love you find or cultivate in yourself, the more you are driven to serve and assist others. Some people can be infinitely and constantly in the state of love, and in this state, they feel they have no choice but to dedicate their lives to other people.

As Nimatullahis Sufis, we should all try to instill and cultivate the force of love in ourselves, which in turn helps us to serve and aid others as much as we can.